What Does It Take to Get a 90+ ATAR in Queensland?

This guide is for Queensland parents and senior students. It covers what an ATAR of 90 or above takes in real marks and what the research says about how to study.

What does an ATAR of 90 actually mean?

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An ATAR of 90 is the top 10% of everyone your child’s age in the state, including students who left school early. In 2025, about 7,500 Queensland students received 90 or above.

Why the ‘quarter of students’ figure is wrong

You may see a claim that a quarter of Queensland students got 90 or above. That is a quarter of the students who received an ATAR, and only about half of the Year 12 cohort gets one. Measured against everyone that age, it is just over 10%.

What marks do you need for a 90 ATAR?

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New South Wales publishes the clearest numbers. In 2025, UAC’s conversion table put an ATAR of 90 at an aggregate of 370.7 out of 500 across 10 units. That is an average scaled mark of just over 37 out of 50 in every unit, against a state average of about 25.

Queensland does not publish a conversion table

QTAC does not publish a table that converts an aggregate into an ATAR, so any exact Queensland aggregate is a guess. The best estimate from what QTAC does publish is around 416 out of 500. That is an average scaled result of about 83 out of 100 across five subjects.

One assessment matters more near 90

In Victoria, one ATAR point near 90 costs about 2.6 aggregate points, which is less than a single study score. So near 90, one assessment can move the ATAR. Moving from 99 to 99.9 costs about seven times as many marks for each point.

Why does the same mark count for more in some subjects?

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QTAC publishes raw results against scaled results for every subject. In 2025, a Queensland student needed roughly these raw marks for a scaled result of 90.

Subject	Raw mark for a scaled 90
Specialist Mathematics	About 72
Mathematical Methods	About 77
Chemistry	About 85
Physics	About 86
English	About 92
Biology	About 93
Physical Education	Not reachable in the range QTAC reports

That is a 21-mark spread for the same outcome. A student in the top 1% of Physical Education, on a raw mark of 98, ends up with a scaled result of only 85. The median Mathematical Methods student ends up with 89.6.

What scaling measures

ATAR scaling reflects how strong the other students in a subject are. It is not a measure of how hard the subject is. The Specialist Mathematics group performs well across everything else they study, and that pulls its scaling up.

So this is no reason to move your child into Specialist Mathematics. Finishing near the bottom of that class gains nothing from scaling.

What does an A on a Queensland report card tell you?

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In Queensland, the letter grade is close to meaningless as a signal of where your child is tracking. QCAA sets the grade cut-offs separately for every subject, every year.

• In English in 2025, an A started at 84 out of 100, and 23% of the cohort got one.
• In Chemistry, an A started at 87, and 44% of the cohort got one. That was 4,132 of 9,335 students.

So an A in Chemistry puts your child in the top 44% of that subject, which is barely above the middle. Ask for the mark out of 100, because that is the number that tells you something.

Does your child need high-scaling subjects to get a 90?

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No. New South Wales publishes subject percentiles. Its data shows that a student in the top 1% of five of the lowest-scaling subjects lands between an ATAR of 90 and 95. Business Studies is one of the lowest-scaling subjects, and in 2025 a student who counted every unit of it received 99.95.

Where subject choice starts to matter

An ATAR of 99 needs an average scaled mark of about 45 per unit. The 99th percentile scaled mark is 40.4 in Community and Family Studies and 39.7 in English Standard. A top 1% student in those subjects can still fall short of a 99. At 90, scaling makes little difference. At 99, it decides how much room for error your child has.

Maths and extra subjects

UAC has stated that some students on the top ATAR of 99.95 studied no maths at all. Of NSW students on 99 or above, though, 86% counted Mathematics Extension 1. UAC also says you cannot assume that studying more units will increase your ATAR.

In Queensland the ATAR uses your best five subjects, so a sixth subject works as insurance. With six, one subject can collapse and be dropped. With exactly five, every result has to hold.

Which assessments count towards the ATAR in Queensland?

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Year 11 does not count

QCAA bases final subject results only on Units 3 and 4. Units 1 and 2 still matter for QCE eligibility, and they give your child low-stakes practice at the real assessment types. For most students, the work that counts starts in Term 1 of Year 12, although some schools start Unit 3 in Term 4 of Year 11, and in 2026 the first counted result was locked in by 21 April.

The assessments are not equally weighted

In English, all four assessments are worth 25%. In Biology and Chemistry, the first internal assessment, the data test, is worth 10%. The next two are worth 20% each, and the external exam is worth 50%. In Mathematical Methods, the first task is worth more than either of the two internal exams that follow it.

Most marks are locked in by August

In 2026, internal marks were due to QCAA by 18 August, and the external exams run from 26 October to 17 November. By mid-August, half of a science subject is locked in, and three quarters of a subject like English.

The school’s mark is a proposal

QCAA checks assessment tasks before students see them. In the last reporting year, only 68% of more than 27,600 school-written tasks were approved on the first application. After marking, QCAA reviews samples and can change the school’s marks. Of more than 171,000 student marks reviewed, just over 84% of school decisions were matched.

The marks that moved were in the tasks that involve judgement: the experiment and research investigation tasks. Together they are worth 40% of a science subject.

What happens if an assessment goes over the word limit?

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A response that goes over the word limit is cut off. QCAA allows schools to mark only up to the point where it reaches the limit, and it forbids arbitrary mark deductions. So a conclusion that sits 200 words over the limit is simply not read, even if it holds the student’s best analysis.

Submit a complete, genuine draft on time and at the right length. The draft is the only round of feedback the system gives, and it protects your child if something else goes wrong later.

What study methods does the research support?

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A foundational review rated 10 study techniques. Only two came out as high utility: testing yourself and spreading study out over time. Summarising, highlighting and rereading notes were rated low.

Those are the methods students use. In one study of 177 students, 84% said they reread their notes, and only 1% ranked testing themselves as their top strategy.

Testing yourself beats rereading

In one experiment, one group studied material four times. Another studied it once and then tested themselves on it three times. Five minutes later, the studying group were ahead, 83% to 71%. A week later, the studying group had dropped to 40% and the testing group were on 61%.

The group who only studied predicted they would do best, and they came last. If study feels smooth and easy, that is usually a sign it is not working.

Spacing beats cramming

In one study, spacing study out beat cramming for 63 of 70 participants. Of those with a preference, 72% believed cramming worked better.

Getting more from self-testing

The evidence for self-testing is strongest at high school age. Checking the answers afterwards nearly doubles the benefit, and matching the real exam format adds to it again.

How should students use past papers?

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There is no research on past papers specifically. A past paper done properly is a form of testing yourself in the exam’s own format, and marking it gives feedback. Done under timed conditions and marked against the criteria, it is the highest value revision activity available. Done open book, untimed and never marked, it throws away most of the benefit.

Learn the content first. When students score under 50% on a practice test, the learning benefit almost completely disappears.

Which study advice is not backed by evidence?

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Learning styles. Around 89% of educators across 18 countries believe students learn better when taught in their preferred style. Every properly designed test has failed to find that effect. Your child is not a visual learner. Some material simply suits pictures.

Study hours. There is no reliable source for the figures on how many hours high achievers study. Internationally, average science scores fell with each additional hour of after-school study, mostly because struggling students study more.

Sleep the night before. In a study that tracked sleep across a semester, sleep on the night before an exam had no significant link to the mark. Sleep across the preceding weeks did. In the largest study of teenagers, consistent sleep predicted grades and the average amount did not.

How can parents help with Year 12 study?

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A meta-analysis of 50 studies on parental involvement in the secondary years found that helping with homework had a slightly negative association with achievement. The strongest form by a distance is what researchers call academic socialisation:

• Communicating your expectations.
• Talking about how your child is studying, rather than what mark they got.
• Connecting schoolwork to what they want to do afterwards.

So the most useful thing you can do is talk with your child about how they study.

What the evidence says about tutoring

The international trial evidence supports tutoring, but it is weakest at senior secondary, where ATAR students are. The largest tutoring program run in Australia, across 138,000 students, found no measurable difference compared with similar students. The evidence supports small groups or one-to-one, short regular sessions and trained tutors. It also supports work where the student is tested and marked against the criteria.

Related resources

• 9 minVideoDoes Year 11 Count Towards the ATAR in Queensland?
• 11 minVideoHow Is the ATAR Calculated in Queensland?
• 6 minVideoHow ATAR Scaling Works in Queensland and What It Means for Subject Choices